Delusions of the media sector

A couple of things happened over the last 24 hours. The Digital Economy Bill has been effectively passed. The media industry such as the BPI think that they have saved their industry when they have just lost the war with their consumer audience. The experience in Sweden has shown that piracy levels actually increase as consumers learn how to do it with impunity, Mike Butcher has more including how the legislation will devastate the UK technology and start up sectors, encouraging investors and entrepreneurs to move elsewhere. The second thing that came out yesterday was the revelation Rupert Murdoch shared about his plan for revitalising the media industry: ‘consumers will pay for content when they have nowhere else to go‘ and ‘together we’ll stop Google‘. If you were a smart media proprietor competing Mr Murdoch are you really going to support this move. Surely it would make more sense to bet against him and grab the audience and the advertising revenue?